7 Features to Love About the Dodge Charger

The Dodge Charger we know and love is being discontinued for a more emissions-compliant alternative. However, the latest seventh-generation models are still available if you search for them at a used Dodge dealership. What is it about the car that has drawn you in, and what features would make you instantly buy one? Here are some of the Charger’s top features that make it well worth owning.

It’s a Roomy Four-Door Sedan

This seems like a no-brainer, but it is a worthwhile feature of the Dodge Charger. The Challenger appeals to the two-door crowd, but how many four-door performance sedans are out there that are this roomy and muscular in their stance? If you want a high-performing four-door vehicle, you typically have to look to European automakers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or Jaguar. Do you really want to spend an arm and a leg for a grand touring car where the expensive purchase and maintenance costs are going to burn a hole through your wallet? That’s where the Charger comes in.

The Charger provides up to 104.7 cu-ft of interior passenger space spread across two rows, with bucket seats in front and a split bench seat in the rear that seats three. This makes for a roomy four-door sedan that offers the kind of passenger space you would expect from a compact crossover or a smaller midsize SUV, making the Charger not only an excellent daily driver or sports project but also a starter family vehicle.

Menacing Profile With a Muscular Stance

With a heritage that dates back to the peak of the 1960s muscle car era, the Dodge Charger has always had a distinct look. The seventh-generation Charger, in particular, took the throwback design from the sixth generation and went for a more aggressive and sinister appearance. It sports a low, wide, muscular stance demanding attention and respect.

The lines are more striking and overt for the newer Chargers, as the seventh generation moved away from the relaxed curvature of the previous generation. The town car appeal of the sixth generation tried to embody was gone, as Dodge went all in on the muscle car sedan segment. A rear spoiler, large 20-inch wheels, and a hood scoop with functional vents all help define the Charger’s style and make it stand out from the competition as one of the last uniquely menacing American-made sedans.

High-Performance Suspension and Features

Many vehicles out there are designed to simply get you comfortably from point A to point B, but Dodge didn’t design the seventh-generation Charger to simply mosey you from one destination to the next. It’s all about how you get there, and the “how,” in this case, is through a high-performance suspension and race-inspired features that enable you to travel to your destination with a huge smile on your face. Performance struts, springs, and shocks that smooth out the bumps while improving handling give the Charger the stability you need, whether gunning it down the highway or trying to post record times on the drag strip.

It’s not just the high-performance components that make the Charger so cool. It’s also the electronic and systematic features that complement those components. For instance, select models come with stability and performance improvements, such as Line-Lock, which gives you the ability to perform controlled standing burnouts even if you’ve never done them before. Launch Control helps you get off the line and utilize the torque in the best way, whether it’s away from a green light or off the starting line of a drag race. With added stability from features like the available Brembo brake kit, race cooldown, and torque reserve, many awesome features make the Charger both functional on the streets and a beast on the track.

SRT Performance Pages

The term “SRT Performance Pages” may not mean much to casual drivers, but this feature can quickly turn a casual driver into a muscle car expert thanks to the functionality and utility they provide. The SRT Performance Pages enable you to customize how the Charger performs on select Charger models. This touchscreen app offers multiple tabs with a dizzying array of options to customize how your Charger performs.

You can modify or learn more about features like Line Lock and Launch Control from the SRT Performance Pages or quickly switch between the available drive modes for your Charger. Four driving modes are available: Track, Sport, Custom, and Auto. Casual drivers can stick to Auto to get functional and reliable performance out of the Charger, while those who regularly do track meets will want to make use of the Track mode features. Sport mode is perfect for twisty back roads or testing the Charger’s capabilities. Custom lets you customize what features are enabled when it comes to traction control, stability management, and more. The added performance pages also enable you to track and export your telemetry data to improve your track times or better understand where your Charger needs more tuning.

Highly Customizable and Designed for Personalization

Many vehicles are designed to be one-and-done deals. You put your money down, sign on the dotted line, and it’s yours. However, it’s not really yours because various vehicles have limited customization options due to the way they’re designed. The Dodge Charger is the complete opposite of many other vehicles out there since it’s designed to be highly customizable, whether through OEM Mopar replacements or aftermarket tuning.

If you want better braking, select a trim with a Brembo brake upgrade. Do you want a smoother ride? Select models provide an air ride suspension. Are you looking for even more power from an already powerful muscular sedan? Intercoolers, turbocharging kits, and supercharger replacements are available. Whether you want cool graphics, racing stripes, or a specific look or feel for the car, you can almost always achieve it in a practical way with the Charger, either through Mopar or other third-party outfitters.

SRT Hellcat Redeye Jailbreak

We’re getting into the rarefied air section of the list. This is where the Charger not only stands out among other midsize four-door sedans but also stands out among other high-performance cars across the board. Rare trims like the SRT Hellcat, Hellcat Redeye, and Hellcat Redeye Jailbreak go above and beyond when it comes to high-performance capabilities. You can bring these kitted-out iterations to a race track and keep up with some of the best, thanks to how well-tuned the Charger SRT trims are. This is thanks to the supercharged V8 powertrains, TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic transmission with an upgraded torque converter, and special badging and colors for some of these trims.

The SRT Hellcat line of models was first introduced in the seventh-generation Charger in 2015. Since then, Dodge has been adding to and escalating the capabilities, customization packages, and performance scaling of the Charger with these SRT models. These trims also come with widebody kits for better stability on the race track, which also looks downright awesome. They take full advantage of the SRT Performance Pages and features like torque reserve, race cooldown, Line Lock, Launch Assist, and Launch Control. They come equipped with performance tires, SRT-tuned Bilstein adaptive suspension, and one of the meanest-looking fascias on this side of the classic muscle car era.

Last of the V8 Interceptors

The writing has been on the wall for years, but reality is starting to seep in. We’re at the end of an era when it comes to American-made V8 sedans. While you can still find V8s in various trucks and heavy-duty models, due to emission and fuel economy standards, the days of stuffing a big V8 into a sedan are at an end. Despite this tragedy of seeing automotive excellence aged out of the market (while still extremely popular among consumers), the Dodge Charger is one of the last affordable high-performance sedans featuring the iconic HEMI V8 engines, the best feature of the Charger.

You have up to four different highly tuned V8 options for the Charger. The entry-level 5.7L HEMI Eagle V8 produces up to 370 hp and 395 lb-ft of torque, impressive for an entry-level model. The naturally aspirated 6.4L HEMI 392 Apache V8 produces up to 485 hp and 475 lb-ft of torque. Stepping into the Hellcat lineup unlocks the supercharged 6.2L HEMI Hellcat V8 that makes 717 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque. Finally, the unbelievably powerful supercharged 6.2L HEMI Hellcat High-Output V8 makes up to 807 hp and 707 lb-ft of torque. These are the pinnacle of the modern American muscle car powertrain and represent the last of the coveted V8s in mass-market sedans. If there was one feature that would get anyone excited to own a Charger, it would be to own one of the last of the supercharged HEMI Hellcat V8s. Sadly, you will only be able to get one from a used Dodge dealership these days now that the Charger’s production run has come to an end.

Posted in Used Dodge Dealership | No Comments »